Veteran's Day

I am fortunate to have had three men who served in WWII participate in my upbringing. Granddaddy Pierce was one of those men. The generation that went through the depression when they were young and won WWII were tough people with a strong work ethic. He is pictured here at his desk in Buffalo, NY in 1950 where he served as the Reserve Advisor.

A newspaper clipping I have reads:

Lieut. Col. Erie F. Pierce Takes Charge of Army Organized Reserve

     "The new senior unit instructor in charge of the Army Organized Reserve Corps office, 151 West Mohawk Street is Lt. Col. Erie F. Pierce, who took over his duties here today. He relieved Col. Robert Schmidt who has been assigned to Camp Roberts, Calif.
     Lt. Col. Pierce, who also will retain his position as unit instructor in charge of medical units, lives at 34 Nevada Ave. with his wife and two children, Ricky, 10 and Ronnie, 7.
     Beginning his Army career in 1935 as an enlisted man, he was commissioned in 1937, saw service in China and India during World War II and was assigned here in July 1949, A native of Steele, Mo., Lt. Col. Pierce is a graduate of Mississippi State College."

A second clipping tells more about his time in Buffalo, NY:

COL. PIERCE NAMED MEDICAL ADVISER IN N.Y. DISTRICT

     "Lieut. Col. Erie F. Pierce, senior Organized Reserve Corps instructor in the Buffalo area, has been appointed medical branch adviser to the chief of the New York Military District. He will begin his duties on Monday.
     In the New York City ORC office, he will advise the district chief on the qualifications of state medical units for federalization.
     Col. H.A. Cooney, chief of the New York District, in announcing the transfer, commended Col. Pierce for his work during the past 2 1/2 years with medical units. Local reserve units are 50% more active than when he was assigned to Buffalo. No successor to Col. Pierce has been designated.
     Meanwhile, Col. Carlton C. Proctor, commanding officer of the 9064th Volunteer Air Reserve Training Group, revealed that the group's liaison officer, Capt. Robert Fogarty, was in New York City today to get final details for the activation of the 2265th Air Force Reserve Training Center in Buffalo."

One correction I would like to add is that Granddaddy was actually a native of Marion County, Alabama. He moved his family to Steele MO in the mid-1930s.  He continued his love of teaching and earned his Master's Degree in Chemistry at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts in 1959 while operating another Reserve Unit in Boston. When he retired, he took a job teaching High School Chemistry in his wife's hometown of Amory, Mississippi. There, he would give his students his definition of a kiss: "A kiss is nothing but a suck on a gut twenty feet long and half-full of shit."